South Point - The VegasTripping Review 2013

Apparently, Personality Comes at a Price

The shower. The lack of water pressure made a fast escape out of this god-forsaken space a challenge.

And that's it. Was that the shortest room review you've ever read on VT? Probably. But trust me, I had to TRY to find something to write about. Speaks volumes on the quality of accommodations.

The Casino

The casino carries over much of the same vibe as the reception area. It's open and easy to navigate, and again, very yellow. On a Saturday night with the tables packed, the vibe's decent with a fair mix of locals and tourists.

I spent much of my trip gambling all over the strip. On Saturday night after spending most of the day dedicated to the wedding, I didn't have the energy to hit the strip again and decided to take it easy at South Point. I pulled up to a $10, two-deck pitch game of blackjack. God, I love the pitch game; you get just a little bit of that baccarat taste with the slow turnover of the cards. With $25-$200 out on the line, I didn't win every single bet, but made every single double down and split there was. In that short time, none of this uber-meh off-strip hotel's shortcomings mattered - this table was my personal ATM.

The one purple I bought in with turned into three. I took them to the cashier where she asked me what I was playing and to point out the general direction of the table. She had to call that pit to confirm the win. It made me feel like my success at the tables was forcing them to shut down their doors. I wouldn't cry about it.

Recently, I was stayed at a Holiday Inn in the middle of Idaho with more character. It had been remodeled with red accents, some nice artwork and perhaps slightly-upgraded lighting... so I agree... it isn't expensive for a hotel to splash a bit of charm or soul into a hotel room. Hell, I haven't stayed there, but look at the remodeled rooms at Terrible's for a great example of this.

I guess if you hold Vegas to a higher standard than other cities, I can understand the complaining. I may be at the point where I'm too used to residential hotels in towns without strippers and beer pong, because it looks to me like the kind of Hilton Garden Inn that I book on vacation.

Tipping1 posted on Wednesday, 24th April 2013 - 5:28 pm

You forgot the best part, the best Video Poker paytables in all of Las Vegas and possibly the country

Her highness would never have graced her arse at Wynn/Encore if not for your advice.

I'll still stay Dtown; I'll still use the strips perfection of the resort experience to entice her queenship...every motherfuckin' once and awhile.

Kudo's noone does the spanish inqusition quite as well as you my friend.

Wanna go surf?

Drake posted on Thursday, 25th April 2013 - 4:38 am

Please, show me any Holiday Inn in the country that doesn't charge $100 a night and up, then come back and complain about this perfectly okay joint that charges half that and still provides a decent resort experience. Count me as a fan of South Point and everything it stands for.

Thanks for the Southpoint room review! I've played vp and slots there on a few trips and bought a few Super Bowl futures tickets there, though I've never stayed there. If I was a local and lived nearby I can see myself playing there quite a bit. I'm lookin' forward to seeing Jerry Lewis there in a few weeks.

blissfulignoramus posted on Thursday, 25th April 2013 - 6:31 am

"You're probably thinking that I'm just grumpy because I paid $120 per night. Nope. At even their consistent rate of $50, it's overpriced."

I'm sorry -- I love this site and I particularly love MikeE's contributions, but this is utter bs. As Drake points out above, $120/night gets you a hotel room like this one in the middle of nowhere. That is exactly what I paid to stay in a Holiday Inn in Perrysburg, Ohio last summer. On a weekend when Vegas was apparently booked up, that is a terrific price for what looks like a perfectly functional, comfortable hotel room.

I like a good, snarky high-brow review of a low-brow entity as much as the next guy. Read Anthony Lane's review of "Showgirls," or Pete Wells' review of Guy Fieri's restaurant for some prime examples. The key to pulling it off is to be snarky and funny at the same time; if you fail to do the latter you simply come across as snobby and humorless. Maybe my sarcasm detector isn't working properly, but criticizing South Point of all places for the nightstand not being properly centered? That the room didn't have a minibar? Do you really think people who stay at South Point are interested in spending five bucks on an airplane bottle of vodka? I hope I'm just missing some intentional self-parody here. If not, you should be sentenced to a weeklong stay in Somerset House.

Drake posted on Thursday, 25th April 2013 - 7:07 am

^^ A Mike E review of The Quad would be just the ticket.

C'mon, big guy, pack the bleach, Lysol and hazmat booties and take one for the team!

@blissfulignoramus If this review comes off as humorless to you, you should check the batteries in that "sarcasm detector" you mentioned. And seriously, the place is hideous. The yellow of an underexposed photo as decor, for real.

@MinVegas Dude, come on, Hilton Garden Inns are way more tasteful than South Point. No fucking contest.

Being snarky isn't funny. It's douchey like an affliction shirt wearing guido at wet republic.
Sarcastic is funny. Please, if you're gonna write a unflattering review, please be funny. This review makes the writer look worse than the room he is reviewing.

And the equivalent of an Encore room in Manhattan would be marketed as a top suite and run upwards of $2K. Comparing Vegas to other hotel rooms in the city isn't a fair comparison.

But here's a fair comparison: Luxor or Bally's run $50 weekdays all the time, sometimes even lower. New York New York and Monte Carlo a little more than that. Now unless I'm looking to spend my entire trip at a decent blackjack table or video poker machine, staying six miles south of everything makes no logical sense. And even if I were looking to do nothing but gamble, downtown is still the far better value.

Center strip, I get an iPod docking station and high thread-count linens. The least South Point could do is center the fucking furniture.

@hawaiianmark You can bet I dawn patrol'd the very next day after my return. Needed to regain my soul.

VegasDowntownReport posted on Thursday, 25th April 2013 - 9:27 pm

I stayed here when it first opened in 2006, back when it was called the South Coast. It was pretty much the same then as it is now. Been back several times since and always a good experience.

Some of the other Coronado Cafe food is good, including some of their Chinese dishes. But my favorite? The Cowboy Omelette. Smothered in chili. It's the southern strip version of the coney dog and chili cheese fries at the D.

The Vaughn's have always seemed to sweat bigger action at least from reports on Bills before they gave it to Harrahs. Sounds like that has continued. Nice write up. I don't mind drab, if I'm being cost conscious and have no choice, but I completely understand your point with how ridiculous the place is being 6 miles away and not much to offer.

blissfulignoramus posted on Friday, 26th April 2013 - 10:08 pm

Let me reiterate: MikeE is a treasure on this site, and I really enjoy his contributions.

My beef with your review was that you were criticizing the room in SP using a standard that is completely irrelevant. People do stay at SP, and they like it. People with the standards you expressed in your review wouldn't even consider staying there unless they had no other choice, like you didn't. But when I'm paying $120/night for that room at a time when the whole town is booked up, I am not going to complain.

Personally, I can never imagine staying there, and I would agree with you that there are better choices at the same price line (although I would nitpick that both Luxor and NY NY are likely to be significantly more expensive, on average, all of the time). But SP is not there to serve my needs, nor yours unless you are in a desperate situation. They offer what they offer at what seems to me a very reasonable price. The problem isn't the lack of panache in the room decor, or the value, it's staying out in the middle of nowhere in a boring resort. Some people actually want that. Those of us who don't already knew that SP is not for us.

Yeah the room is boring but it was clean and did the job it needed to. Had a flat screen TV (that GASP was un-centered and that would make me NEVER want to stay somewhere again ever!) and semi-comfy looking beds and a clean bathroom (it was cleaner than that bathroom in the Flamingo that Chuckmoster did a review on).

As someone said before, this review wasn't even funny. I've never been a HUGE MikeE fan anyway but that's just me. To each his own.

Set foot in SP for the first time last month on a trip to Michael's. The casino decor reminded me of the Monte Carlo, but even blander. And while they actually offer some pretty decent BJ, it is not a very appealing place to play craps.

Michael's, on the other hand, was phenomenal. It's over-the-top 1960s-era take on gourmet dining was the perfect antidote to the utterly obnoxious and uninspired meal at Andrea's the night before.

thefish2010 posted on Friday, 10th May 2013 - 4:13 am

I'm not sure you're being entirely fair to the place. It is probably at the top of the heap for what it is: a budget hotel in Las Vegas with amenities that locals care about (nice movie theater etc). It's not supposed to have character. The place is designed to draw the crowd that would normally go to places like the Orleans or the Gold Coast. I am more of an Aria/Bellagio type of guy,so I personally don't stay there, but if I were looking for a cheap, clean place to sleep, it would probably be at the top of my list.

I am of the opinion that you may have wanted Filet Mignon, but at flank steak prices. You are very obviously a person who should stay on the strip only, do not venture outside of the strip. I have stayed at the South Point many times and very much enjoy the fact that it is what you complain about, an affordable, clean, family friendly hotel. It is clean and since that is about the only thing you didn't complain about, you must have noticed that first hand. The Room is clean and roomy, my wife and 2 teenagers and myself can fit quite comfortably. They have the BEST in-casino movie theater in town (a huge plus for parents of 14 and 16 year olds. lol). They also have a beautiful state of the art bowling arena and a small arcade, the pool is large and lagoon shaped but not very deep. The eateries are very good, I have eaten at Coronado's many times and have NEVER had anything bad. If your family had a bad meal that has to be the exception and not the rule. Micheals is an excellent well priced establishment with a limited menu. Silverado's Steakhouse is great and as far as Vegas steakhouses go a real bargain. you really do not do the South Point justice with your unfair and quite biased opinion (if you want to stay on the strip pay strip prices).

Tammy58 posted on Thursday, 16th May 2013 - 4:24 pm

Go ahead and blast away at the place. When you go back to the strip and stay at the lower end hotels you can lose your bankroll at the same time. I come all the way from Mass and spend my last few nights at SP every trip. After losing our shirts on the strip...it is wonderful to see my bankroll last ALL day instead of a few hours. Obviously this hotel is not meant for people like you. Just as I will never see a Wynn suite. Average hotel with decent gaming for average people. If you don't fall into that category there are many other places to stay.

Played with 3 different bjack dealers while waiting for the Jerry Lewis show and none of them greeted me, acknowledged my dealer bets, or said anything when I left the table.I will never spend a penny there again.

Seems to be a lot of thin skins here. No, MikeE is NOT calling you a poopy-head for staying here and enjoying yourself. He's saying the place has no soul, that comparably-priced rooms in the city have way more character, and that it would not take much for them to have tried.

First of all, the South Point is not the same price as the strip. It clearly states that in the 1st page of the review, the strip cost at that time was between $180 and $300 per night. The south point as usual was a relative bargain at $120 a night. You cannot pay flank steak prices and then expect filet mignon.

poppaD posted on Friday, 16th August 2013 - 1:05 pm

My wife and I stay here every time. The room is 500sq. ft. and the toilet is separate from the wash are so you can close the door! I'm over 50 so I don't need all the noise and drunken masses. The banks and stores are down the street and their liquor store is has prices less than at most stores! It is plain but the single king room has a large sitting area with a couch. When my wife wants to go downstairs by her self I feel less worried than downtown or the strip. It's got a movie theater, bowling alley and a spa that I never use. I hate the cafe, I only eat breakfast or hamburgers.